London (AFP)

Manchester City showed "the utmost contempt" for the UEFA investigation but "did not break the rules" of financial fair play (FPF), according to the full judgment released Tuesday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS ), who canceled the English club's two-year suspension for the European Cups in July.

This ruling explains in detail that UEFA, despite a long investigation, has failed to prove that City had concealed sources of funding from its owners by passing them off as sponsorship.

On July 13, CAS canceled the two-year suspension from all European competitions imposed on City by UEFA. He also reduced from 30 to 10 million euros the fine decided by the supreme body of European football.

This fine is in fact a sanction for City's lack of cooperation with UEFA investigators. But "on the basis of the evidence provided, the panel cannot conclude that disguised funds were paid to City", adds the judgment of the CAS.

The other Manchester club changed categories in 2008 when they were taken over by Abu Dhabi royal family Sheikh Mansour.

He was then accused of inflating the value of sponsorship income from Etisalat and Etihad Airways companies to respect the FPF rules devised by UEFA in order to limit the losses of European clubs too greedy for quality players.

The UEFA investigation was triggered by revelations from German magazine Der Spiegel in 2018, based on internal emails from the English club.

The CAS also regrets, in its judgment, that City waited until the last minute, and therefore the appeal procedure, to enter into the file testimonies from club leaders and a letter from Cheikh Mansour that had not been produced during the initial investigation.

Finally, the CAS acknowledges that UEFA found itself faced with a dilemma made worse by the lack of available time: to wait for further evidence from City and / or to have to pronounce a sanction before the start of the campaign. 2020/2021 European Cups.

Nine Premier League clubs (Arsenal, Burnley, Chelsea, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester United, Newcastle, Tottenham and Wolverhampton) had asked UEFA to ban City from taking part in the Champions League if a judgment was not delivered before the start of the 2020-21 season.

© 2020 AFP